Projections

Our first scene

starred an ingenue
               with eyes like two
               soft chocolate drops.
The seductress
appears on and off
               by now she knows
               her purpose;
unless you count success
in minutes onstage
she's generally a loser
               though some are taken
               in by her act.
But we have been
unpeopled by death:
endings ominously final
as a drawn curtain
               this includes all
               versions of goodbye.
These small finales
leave us shaken,
rehearsing
               stage fright,
the part of
               my selves
consummate woman.

Published in Waters, Cincinnati, 1975